I know I said the WWIII would begin in September, but I didn't expect it to be in Syria.
I may dance around this propaganda for a variety of reasons. Sorry.
"NATO approves new reaction force for Eastern Europe" by Steven Erlanger, Stephen Castle and Neil MacFarquhar | New York Times September 06, 2014
NEWPORT, Wales — NATO leaders approved plans Friday for a 4,000-person rapid reaction force to be based in Eastern Europe and meant to reassure members of the alliance unnerved by events in Ukraine, where Russia seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula and has backed separatist rebels in the east of the country.
They didn't do either. The Crimeans voted to join Russia, something conveniently forgotten by the war-flogging NYT.
Since they are starting it off that way this is almost a waste of time to read.
The NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said that the force, a “spearhead” for a larger reaction force, would send a clear message to potential aggressors, namely Russia, and would represent “a continuous presence.”
“Should you even think of attacking one ally, you will be facing the whole alliance,” he declared at the close of the two-day NATO summit in southern Wales.
In a press conference after the summit, President Obama said that the principle of collective defense was “nonnegotiable” and that NATO “will defend every ally.”
That is how WWI got going, yeah.
Obama said the leaders had agreed to a “new readiness action plan,” including the creation of the new force, the stationing of more equipment in Central and Eastern Europe, more rotations of forces into the area, and more training exercises there. He said all 28 allies would contribute to the effort “as long as necessary” and said members who were not already meeting the alliance’s goal of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense would increase their military budgets.
I'm sure their austerity, nay, tyranny-lashed citizens will love seeing that.
“NATO will not be complacent,” Obama said.
This guy is leaving us another decade of war on his way out. What a sphincter.
Though Ukraine is not a member of the alliance, the president said, NATO was committed to upholding the country’s “sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and right to defend itself.”
???????
He said that all 28 allies would provide security assistance to Ukraine, including help with logistics and with command and control, and said NATO’s resolve would send “a strong message to Russia.”
We got it, war criminal.
Obama said the door to NATO membership “remains open to nations that can meet our high standards” and said the alliance will reinforce its cooperation with other countries as well. He specifically mentioned two, Georgia and Moldova, where Russian-backed separatist rebels have broken off chunks of territory from government control, as well as Jordan and Libya.
I didn't know Jordan and Libya were in the North Atlantic, did you?
Earlier Friday, the Obama administration said it had formed a coalition of countries to oppose Sunni militants with the Islamic State group, unveiling a military and political campaign that officials said could eventually serve as a model for fighting extremist groups around the world.
I will be getting back to that self-created and self-perpetuating psyop soon.
But Ukraine remained the most important issue for the alliance, even as a cease-fire was announced Friday in Minsk, Belarus, by representatives of Ukraine, the pro-Russian rebels, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The United States and the European Union have expressed skepticism about a cease-fire in the Ukraine conflict and said they were preparing further coordinated economic sanctions against Russia.
Those could be considered acts of war.
Asked at the press conference whether those sanctions would go ahead if the cease-fire took hold, Obama gave a guarded answer. Though “the only reason we are seeing a cease-fire is the sanctions” against Russia, he said, European leaders were still discussing how and when to proceed with a new round.
I'm tired of the delusions or deceptions that flow from his mouth.
“The path for Russia to rejoin the community of nations that respects international law is still there,”
Obama said. So when is he going to start doing that?
Britain said it will supply 1,000 troops, including a brigade headquarters, for the new NATO rapid reaction force, and that 3,500 British troops will take part in NATO exercises in Eastern Europe through 2015 — though there might be some overlap between the two commitments.
NATO also announced that its next summit, in 2016, will be held in Warsaw, the Polish capital, where “the Warsaw Pact was created and overthrown,” President Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland said.
Speaking from Minsk, negotiators said that the cease-fire would come into force at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
--more--"
Related: Better ties with Russia possible, new NATO chief says
I'm not seeing it.
"West cuts off aid to Russian oil exploration" by Peter Baker and Andrew Higgins | New York Times September 13, 2014
I'm out.
WASHINGTON — The United States and the European Union moved Friday to shut down Western aid to Russian deepwater, Arctic offshore, and shale oil exploration, broadening and deepening the range of sanctions imposed on Moscow in retaliation for its intervention in Ukraine despite the potential cost to Western firms like Exxon Mobil and BP.
With twin announcements in Washington and Brussels, the new measures targeting Russia’s energy development came in addition to further limits on access to US and European capital markets, making it harder for Russian banks to obtain any credit in foreign capitals beyond short-term loans. The United States specifically targeted Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, for the first time.
The Europeans also banned travel by and froze the assets of 24 more individuals, including Russian lawmakers and others who have supported President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, while the Americans blocked the assets of five Russian state-owned defense technology firms. Also targeted was the Russian defense conglomerate Rostec and its leadership, even as its subsidiary plans to build energy plants in Crimea, the autonomous Ukrainian region that was annexed by Moscow this year in an action still rejected by the outside world.
The measures were enacted despite a fragile cease-fire between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian government forces that took effect last week in eastern Ukraine, and officials on both sides of the Atlantic emphasized that they could be rolled back if Russia took more significant moves to settle the violent dispute there. EU officials specifically plan to review their sanctions before the end of the month and could revise them if the peace holds.
European leaders agreed last month to impose new sanctions on Russia but held off putting them into place amid calls by some countries to wait to see how the cease-fire played out. But the European Council, a body representing EU members, cited the “gravity of the situation” in a notice in its Official Journal announcing the measures Friday and said it “considers it appropriate to take further restrictive measures in response to Russia’s action destabilizing the situation in Ukraine.”
The cumulative effect of the measures was to take aim at the heart of Putin’s project to reshape and revive Russia’s flagging economy through the development of Chinese-style state capitalism. The sanctions targeted a raft of financial, defense, and industrial companies in the vanguard of Putin’s push to replace the wild free-market capitalism of the 1990s with state-led development.
Related: This China Post Will Crack You Up
The market perceived the sanctions, again, as more a warning than a blow to the oil industry, economic analysts said.
Addressing the new sanctions for the first time on Friday, Putin called them “illogical” and accused Western leaders of trying to derail the peace process in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian news agencies.
“I don’t even understand what these present sanctions are related to,” Putin told reporters after a meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional political and security group that includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. “Maybe someone does not like that the process has moved toward a peaceful scenario.”
Wow, an organization committed to "resist israeli american aggression."
In trying to shut down energy development in the Arctic, the United States and the EU went after a pet project of Putin and a close associate, Igor Sechin, chief of Rosneft, the largest Russian oil company. Exxon Mobil, in partnership with Rosneft, began drilling just last month in the Kara Sea off Russia, a joint project that the Kremlin hailed as the most significant fruit of Russian-American cooperation since the end of the Cold War.
Talk about doing a dance!
--more--"
Call it the Soviet shiver:
"Ukrainians gear up for winter without Russian gas" by Laura Mills | Associated Press October 01, 2014
KIEV — For Alexei Polezhai, who sells water heaters and wood-burning stoves at his two shops in Kiev, sales this fall have been remarkably good considering the dramatic collapse in the rest of the Ukrainian economy this year.
Seems to be a pattern when an illegal junta is installed by the U.S.
Ukrainians are rushing to insulate their walls, seal up drafty windows, and snap up heating equipment as the possibility sets in that they may be about to experience their first winter without Russian gas.
Russia stopped gas deliveries to Ukraine in June after Kiev failed to pay what Moscow said it owed in arrears. As the two sides play brinkmanship over whether to sign a stopgap deal that would provide Kiev with enough gas to get through the winter, many Ukrainians are left wondering whether they may have to fend for themselves in the coldest months. Ukraine has some gas stored, but it will not last through the winter.
I wouldn't worry. This planet is warming, or so I have been told.
‘‘People are afraid they will turn off the gas supply entirely,’’ said Polezhai. Demand for his water heaters is about 15 times higher than normal, and sales for wood-burning stoves are also up dramatically. The warehouses where he buys the water heaters have hiked prices by up to 50 percent.
‘‘What to some is war, to others is profit,’’ he joked.
Except it is no joke.
Whereas Oct. 1 typically is the date when central heating is turned on for the winter, first in public buildings and by the middle of the month in residential buildings, this year the government has warned it won’t supply heat until early November, when temperatures can easily dip below freezing.
For more rural residents, preparing for that means chopping extra wood or buying a wood-burning stove. For city residents, options are more limited: They are stocking up on blankets, buying water heaters, and insulating their homes, but otherwise are simply left to cross their fingers.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are expected to resume talks this week in Berlin on a gas deal proposed by the European Union. But Kiev is continuing to talk tough, despite the fact that it previously has relied on Russia for about 60 percent of its gas.
The reason is that the stakes are high for Russia, as well. It uses the pipelines that cross Ukraine to deliver about half of the gas it supplies to Europe. And if Ukraine is desperate enough to start siphoning off gas for its own consumption, Russia would be left either to turn a blind eye or cut off supplies to much of Europe — its largest market — further damaging its reputation and hurting its profits.
So how does that damage Russia? It would the EU-backed Ukrainian jerks responsible for them freezing.
‘‘We’re playing a game of chicken where the risks are too great,’’ said Andrew Neff, an analyst at IHS Energy. ‘‘Nobody wants to go into the winter with this hanging over their heads.’’
The Ukrainian government already is advising people to be prepared for a rough winter.
Why?
‘‘It will not be easy,’’ Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. ‘‘I warn you right away that it won’t be warm, but we won’t freeze.’’
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko last week said households will be approximately 2 degrees Celsius (almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit) colder than in previous years and hot water, which already has been turned off for weeks at a time, will be less readily available.
What is this, Detroit?
Many people, like cello teacher Anna Goncharova, are trying other ways to keep the cold out. She has replaced her old windows, insulated the walls of her apartment, and bought a pile of blankets.
‘‘We’re hoping we won’t freeze,’’ she said. ‘‘I truly hope that somehow we’ll find an agreement with Russia. . . . This can’t happen in the civilized world.’’
Unless it's in Palestine.
--more--"
Call it the Soviet shiver:
"Ukrainians gear up for winter without Russian gas" by Laura Mills | Associated Press October 01, 2014
KIEV — For Alexei Polezhai, who sells water heaters and wood-burning stoves at his two shops in Kiev, sales this fall have been remarkably good considering the dramatic collapse in the rest of the Ukrainian economy this year.
Seems to be a pattern when an illegal junta is installed by the U.S.
Ukrainians are rushing to insulate their walls, seal up drafty windows, and snap up heating equipment as the possibility sets in that they may be about to experience their first winter without Russian gas.
Russia stopped gas deliveries to Ukraine in June after Kiev failed to pay what Moscow said it owed in arrears. As the two sides play brinkmanship over whether to sign a stopgap deal that would provide Kiev with enough gas to get through the winter, many Ukrainians are left wondering whether they may have to fend for themselves in the coldest months. Ukraine has some gas stored, but it will not last through the winter.
I wouldn't worry. This planet is warming, or so I have been told.
‘‘People are afraid they will turn off the gas supply entirely,’’ said Polezhai. Demand for his water heaters is about 15 times higher than normal, and sales for wood-burning stoves are also up dramatically. The warehouses where he buys the water heaters have hiked prices by up to 50 percent.
‘‘What to some is war, to others is profit,’’ he joked.
Except it is no joke.
Whereas Oct. 1 typically is the date when central heating is turned on for the winter, first in public buildings and by the middle of the month in residential buildings, this year the government has warned it won’t supply heat until early November, when temperatures can easily dip below freezing.
For more rural residents, preparing for that means chopping extra wood or buying a wood-burning stove. For city residents, options are more limited: They are stocking up on blankets, buying water heaters, and insulating their homes, but otherwise are simply left to cross their fingers.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are expected to resume talks this week in Berlin on a gas deal proposed by the European Union. But Kiev is continuing to talk tough, despite the fact that it previously has relied on Russia for about 60 percent of its gas.
The reason is that the stakes are high for Russia, as well. It uses the pipelines that cross Ukraine to deliver about half of the gas it supplies to Europe. And if Ukraine is desperate enough to start siphoning off gas for its own consumption, Russia would be left either to turn a blind eye or cut off supplies to much of Europe — its largest market — further damaging its reputation and hurting its profits.
So how does that damage Russia? It would the EU-backed Ukrainian jerks responsible for them freezing.
‘‘We’re playing a game of chicken where the risks are too great,’’ said Andrew Neff, an analyst at IHS Energy. ‘‘Nobody wants to go into the winter with this hanging over their heads.’’
The Ukrainian government already is advising people to be prepared for a rough winter.
Why?
‘‘It will not be easy,’’ Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. ‘‘I warn you right away that it won’t be warm, but we won’t freeze.’’
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko last week said households will be approximately 2 degrees Celsius (almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit) colder than in previous years and hot water, which already has been turned off for weeks at a time, will be less readily available.
What is this, Detroit?
Many people, like cello teacher Anna Goncharova, are trying other ways to keep the cold out. She has replaced her old windows, insulated the walls of her apartment, and bought a pile of blankets.
‘‘We’re hoping we won’t freeze,’’ she said. ‘‘I truly hope that somehow we’ll find an agreement with Russia. . . . This can’t happen in the civilized world.’’
Unless it's in Palestine.
--more--"
"In uneasy cease-fire, Ukrainians look warily at Russia" by Carlotta Gall and Neil MacFarquhar | New York Times September 07, 2014
The NYT “doubts that the calm will prevail and says it’s too early to relax.”
LEBEDYNSKE, Ukraine — Indeed, across Ukraine, the possibility that the war might end had yet to gain traction. The fact that the government failed to release the text of the cease-fire agreement announced by negotiators in Minsk, Belarus, on Friday only added to people’s worries.
Despite assurances from President Petro Poroshenko that the agreement would keep Ukraine whole, there was concern that Russia, after using its army to deal a military blow against Ukrainian troops, was dictating terms that would keep a significant portion of the country under its sway.
That's a 100% lie that should be "annexed."
It will largely be up to Poroshenko — who was elected in May on a platform of ending the war in two weeks and who faces parliamentary elections Oct. 26 — to rapidly convince Ukrainians that negotiating with the separatists was their best choice.
“Ukrainian public opinion is not ready for a peace that does not reflect Ukrainian aspirations,” said Mykhailo Minakov, a professor at the University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy and a civil rights activist. “They are not ready to respect an agreement that would respond to the demands of the separatists or the Russians.”
Give 'em a week or two.
*********************
Poroshenko and President Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke by telephone Saturday, according to a statement on Poroshenko’s website, with both confirming that the cease-fire was holding. They also discussed next steps, but did not specify them.
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement blasting a threat of further sanctions from the European Union on the day a cease-fire was declared. It said Europe was supporting “the party of war.”
Poroshenko said Friday that the agreement mirrored both a recent peace plan proposed by Putin and his own proposal from June. He said it included steps for an immediate cease-fire and promises of greater self-government for the separatist regions.
So much for what the good professor spewed.
The last part is likely to be the most difficult for the public to accept since there was already the impression that Putin had won by leaving his proxy force in place. Russia has long denied sending troops or weapons into Ukraine.
Again?
Many believe that he seeks to create a frozen conflict — much as Russia did in Georgia and Moldova — to keep Ukraine permanently destabilized with a breakaway region in its southeast corner.
That's more US shtick.
Since March, Moscow has demanded that Ukraine put in place a federal system that would give regions significant autonomy, including the ability to establish their own foreign policy.
But Ukraine has promised “decentralization” without really defining publicly what that means.
“We are ready to provide significant steps including the decentralization of power, including the special status for certain districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk region for economic freedom,” Poroshenko told a news conference at the NATO summit in Wales after the cease-fire agreement was announced.
But he concluded by stressing that the peace process was based on preserving “the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of my country.”
--more--"
About that cease-fire:
"Ukraine shelling claims lives, further erodes cease-fire" by Mstyslav Chernov | Associated Press September 08, 2014
SPARTAK, Ukraine — Shelling and other clashes between government forces and Russian-backed separatists threw the cease-fire agreement in eastern Ukraine into deepening peril Sunday, two days after it took hold.
At least two houses hit by artillery fire blazed in the rural village of Spartak, just north of the main rebel-held city of Donetsk and adjacent to the airport.
A man whose house was struck by a shell said rebels had fired from a spot nearby and that apparently provoked a retaliatory attack from Ukrainian government troops.
A group of rebel fighters in the village danced and drank Sunday morning in celebration after what they said was a successful assault on a Ukrainian military encampment in the area.
One said the group had captured eight government troops, though no captives could be seen.
The fighter, who gave only the nom de guerre Khokhol, said the truce was not being respected by either side.
‘‘There was mortar shelling around 20 minutes ago here in Spartak,’’ he said. ‘‘There is no cease-fire for anyone.’’
The truce was signed on Friday by Ukraine, Russia, and the Kremlin-backed rebels after five months of fighting that killed at least 2,600 civilians and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
The agreement was shattered late Saturday by shelling on the outskirts of the coastal town of Mariupol. The City Council said Sunday one civilian was killed and a serviceman wounded.
Mariupol is on the coast of the Sea of Azov, 70 miles south of Donetsk. The rebels recently opened a new front on the coast in what many Ukrainians fear is an attempt to secure a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in March.
Well, they didn't annex it, but.... sigh.
Amnesty International on Sunday condemned all sides in the grinding conflict, saying they have ‘‘shown disregard for civilian lives and are blatantly violating their international obligations.’’
Blasts powerful enough to be heard in downtown Donetsk appeared to be coming from the direction of the airport early Sunday morning.
The government-held terminal, which has been reduced to little more than a burned-out shell, has been under attack from separatist forces for months.
A rebel statement said Ukrainian forces fired on their positions in six locations on Saturday, including near the airport, and several rebels were killed.
In Spartak, resident Anastasia Ivanusenko, who had fled to Donetsk to escape the fighting, learned her house had been destroyed Sunday as she was coming to pick up some basic items for her child.
That's what the good guys did. Ooops!
‘‘I have a little baby and we are temporarily living in a dormitory. We wanted to get the stroller, some warm clothes for the child,’’ she said, quietly sobbing on a bench across the road from her burning home. ‘‘There was no way to get into the house.’’
The 12-point cease-fire agreement, published Sunday by international monitors, calls for the withdrawal of all heavy weaponry, the release of all prisoners, and the delivery of humanitarian aid to devastated cities in eastern Ukraine.
The truce also obliges Kiev to give greater powers to the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions and calls for local elections to be held in those Russian-speaking areas.
Western leaders voiced skepticism over Russia’s commitment to the deal. A previous 10-day cease-fire, which each side repeatedly accused the other of violating, yielded few results at the negotiating table.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s office on Saturday said he and President Vladimir Putin of Russia had discussed steps ‘‘for giving the cease-fire a stable character’’ in a telephone conversation.
But, it said, both leaders assessed the cease-fire as having been ‘‘fulfilled as a whole.’’
Ukraine has promised decentralization in the east but has not defined publicly what that means.
“We are ready to provide significant steps including the decentralization of power, including the special status for certain districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk region for economic freedom,” Poroshenko told a news conference at the NATO summit meeting in Wales after the cease-fire was announced. But he concluded by stressing that the peace process was based on preserving “the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of my country.”
Echoing allegations leveled by the Ukrainian government and NATO, Amnesty International said it has evidence that Moscow is fueling the conflict by directly supporting the separatist fighters.
AI just another juman rights group.
In making its case, the group presented satellite images appearing to show Russian weaponry being brought into Ukraine.
Where did they get satellite imagery? Who provided it?
‘‘These satellite images, coupled with reports of Russian troops captured inside Ukraine and eyewitness accounts of Russian troops and military vehicles rolling across the border, leave no doubt that this is now an international armed conflict,’’ Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty said in a statement.
And the covert US mercenaries?
--more--"
"Ukraine says most Russian troops have withdrawn" by Neil MacFarquhar | New York Times September 11, 2014
KIEV, Ukraine — President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine said Wednesday that the bulk of Russian forces had withdrawn from Ukrainian territory, a move that he said heightened the chances for a lasting cease-fire in the southeast.
No longer an international conflict then.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting broadcast nationally, the president also announced plans to move ahead with a law intended to cement the wobbly truce, reached Friday.
Poroshenko appeared to be trying to create a sense of momentum around the peace process, though a final outcome remains the subject of arduous negotiations. The very law he discussed, for example, has been the source of widely different interpretations.
“Based on the latest information I have received from our intelligence services, 70 percent of the Russian troops have moved back across the border,” Poroshenko said. “This bolsters our hope that the peace initiatives enjoy good prospects.”
He noted the cease-fire remained shaky, accusing Russian-backed militias of trying to provoke Ukrainian forces. He sounded a hopeful note overall, saying the situation had “radically changed.”
The illusion of garbage imagery.
The European Union was considering a timetable for imposing sanctions against Russia’s energy and banking sectors in an effort to compel the Kremlin to support the cease-fire more actively.
Federica Mogherini, Italy’s foreign minister and the European Union’s new foreign policy chief-designate, said Wednesday that Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, had told her the cease-fire was “basically holding” but asked for more European pressure on Russia. “He told me we need new sanctions,” she said.
She indicated that European countries were struggling to find a common position on when to actually impose the new sanctions. She said some countries wanted a new discussion by 28 leaders, which would in effect put matters back where they started when they met in Brussels Aug 30.
In late August, Ukrainian troops were overwhelmed by separatists, widely believed to be backed by Russian forces, who reversed weeks of gains. The cease-fire agreement was reached soon afterward.
Or we were lied to.
Russia has long denied sending arms or troops across the border. But NATO has said that at least 1,000 Russians were deployed in late August, and even a separatist commander said that up to 4,000 Russians, including active troops, had fought in Ukraine, although he described them as volunteers who were using their vacation time.
I don't believe NATO or my propaganda pre$$ claims, sorry.
Poroshenko, who is due to meet with President Obama in Washington Sept. 18, also said he would introduce a law that would grant parts of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk temporary self-rule.
Even though representatives of the two main breakaway regions signed the cease-fire agreement, their goals are not always clear. Some leaders have said they would continue to push for independence. They began fighting five months ago to join Russia, although the Kremlin has never signaled it would take them.
“Ukraine has made no concessions with regard to its territorial integrity,” Poroshenko said. “There is no question of federalization or separation of any Ukrainian territory.”
The president said that 700 Ukrainian prisoners had been released, with another 500 in custody. Most of those would appear to be soldiers, because a government spokesman said Wednesday that only 20 soldiers had been released so far.
Poroshenko gave no specifics about the bill on special status for the areas held by the rebels. The agreement reached Friday calls for Ukraine to move toward “decentralization,” first by adopting a temporary law that gives special status to certain districts.
Officials at the Foreign Ministry in Kiev declined to comment on Ukraine’s negotiating position. But a political adviser to Poroshenko said that each of the 12 points in the cease-fire protocol needed to be negotiated in detail, with the government focused first on silencing the guns and obtaining the release of hundreds of prisoners.
--more--"
Related: 6 dead in fighting in Ukraine
It's New York Times, Carlotta Gall, I used to like her years ago, but the NYT has a lotta gall these days.
Then there is Petroshenko doing his Churchill impersonation as he warns of the new Iron Curtain and suggests that Ukraine would ultimately seek membership in the European Union and join NATO to cement the country’s Western orientation while Poroshenko sought to portray the votes as a moment of triumph, but they were actually concessions to Russia’s significant influence over the future of the country, steps were more freighted with symbolism than likely to bring any immediate change. Turns out it is the Russian peace plan they could have accepted at anytime even as the shelling continues.
Also see:
Heavy artillery withdrawn in Ukraine’s east
Cease-fire being upheld on both sides, Ukraine says
Except violence has continued despite a cease-fire, and since fighting began in April the conflict has claimed at least 3,500 lives while the "good guys" are shelling schools and mass graves are being discovered where Ukraine troops have been pushed out.
Where is AI when you need them?
"Putin vows to expand stockpile of weapons" by DAVID M. HERSZENHORN | New York Times September 11, 2014
MOSCOW — Russia will continue to build up its military might with large-scale weapons purchases in order to meet any threat, particularly from the United States and NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
Related: US ramping up major renewal in nuclear arms
Excuse me?
Putin cited the United States’ continued development of a missile defense system in Europe and Alaska as a major threat, but not the only one.
“There are other things that bother us,” Putin told senior officials who were meeting to discuss a 10-year arms-buying program.
I think I know what they are.
“Military space exploration continues, the issue of the use of non-nuclear strategic weapons is being studied, and so on and so on,” he continued. “A lot of threats are emerging. Recently, as you know, there was a decision made to expand NATO forces in Eastern Europe.”
Putin accused NATO of manipulating events in Ukraine for strategic advantage. “The crisis in Ukraine, which was provoked and created by some of our Western partners, is now being used to reanimate that military bloc,” he said.
He knows it, we know it, they know it.
The Kremlin started a major program to overhaul its army and navy in 2011, with plans to spend more than $500 billion through 2020.
That's chump change to the US empire.
Putin said Wednesday that Russia needed to reduce its reliance on foreign manufacturers of certain weapons and military components, and expand its own ability to make everything the military needs.
He spoke the day before a US delegation was scheduled to visit Moscow to discuss US allegations Russia had violated a 1987 nuclear weapons treaty banning intermediate-range missiles based on land.
--more--"
"US to help Georgia boost its defenses" Associated Press September 08, 2014
TBILISI, Georgia — In the face of growing aggression by Russia, the United States and Georgia moved Sunday to expand their defense relationship — including the possible sale of US Black Hawk helicopters to the former Soviet bloc nation at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Asia.
The continued encirclement and strangulation of Russia as called for by neo-con US war planners.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to annex the Crimea region of Ukraine has further isolated Moscow.
Who hares what Hack Hagel has to say anymore?
‘‘It has done a tremendous amount to coalesce NATO and Europe to come together recognizing what President Putin’s actions have wrought, the danger that that represents to all of Europe,’’ Hagel said during a press conference with Georgia’s defense minister.
Ukraine and Russia signed a cease-fire two days ago, but there have been explosions near the airport in Donetsk, raising concerns the agreement may be on the verge of collapse.
Hagel’s meetings here follow the NATO summit in Wales, where allies agreed to expand Georgia’s role as a NATO partner and reaffirm a longer-term effort to admit the former Soviet republic into the alliance.
The defense minister, Irakli Alasania, said it has been painful for Georgia — which also fought and lost an invasion by Russia in 2008 — to see the world be unable to check Russia’s aggression.
Cue the violins, then flash photos of Gaza, Palestine.
About 20 percent of Georgia — largely the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia — is still occupied by Russia.
They voted to break off, same as Crimea. Nice omission, AP.
But he said Georgia is pleased with NATO’s decision last week to make his country an expanded partner, giving it access to more allied support and services.
At its 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania, President George W. Bush and other NATO leaders agreed that Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet republics, would one day be admitted to the alliance.
While both countries continue to work toward that goal — which the United States supports — there are concerns about Russia’s reaction. Some nations have flatly ruled it out, saying it would heighten tensions in the region.
Alasania said Sunday that his country expects to provide some assistance in the campaign against the Islamic State, adding that training and carrying out military exercises with the Iraqi forces are ‘‘things that come to our mind.’’
--more--"
The dance continues:
"Putin visits Kazakhstan after remarks cause alarm | Associated Press October 01, 2014
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin of Russia visited Kazakhstan on Tuesday to stress the need for close ties between the two countries, a month after he caused alarm in the former Soviet republic by seeming to question its future as an independent state.
During a meeting with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Putin said Russia and Kazakhstan were ‘‘connected historically and today by a thousand threads, which unite us and help us develop, supporting each other.’’
Speaking to young Russians in late August, Putin said that Kazakhstan had only become a state under Nazarbayev.
‘‘The Kazakhs had never had statehood,’’ Putin said. ‘‘He created it. In this sense he is a unique person for the former Soviet space and for Kazakhstan, too.’’ His remarks were interpreted as suggesting that Kazakhstan’s independence might not survive Nazarbayev.
Putin went on to say that most people in Kazakhstan wanted closer relations with Russia and to remain part of the ‘‘big Russian world.’’
I'm sure that did raise alarms in certain western capitals.
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"Center-right on top amid Russia fears
RIGA — Latvia’s center-right coalition government appeared headed for victory in a parliamentary election overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis and worries over how to deal with resurgent neighbor Russia. The three-party coalition government, which has welcomed the buildup of NATO forces in the region as protection against Russia, was winning 62 percent of the vote, according to three exit polls. The opposition Harmony party and For Latvia From the Heart, a left-leaning group, had 27 percent (AP)."
While inside Russia:
"Chechnya suicide bomber kills 5 police, wounds 12" Associated Press October 06, 2014
GROZNY, Russia — After two separatist wars in the 1990s, Chechnya has become more stable under leader Ramzan Kadyrov. But a Muslim insurgency still simmers throughout Russia’s North Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya....
I smell CIA!
Russia has been accused by Western leaders of backing a separatist movement in neighboring Ukraine, supplying rebel fighters with troops and weapons. Fighting has continued in eastern Ukraine despite a cease-fire agreement and passage of a law granting broad autonomy to the region....
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"Russian troops leave Ukraine, but stay nearby" by James Kanter and Martin Fackler | New York Times September 25, 2014
BRUSSELS — With the Russian economy already sputtering, in part from the effects of Western sanctions, Japan on Wednesday imposed limited new sanctions against Russia over the unrest in Ukraine, moving to stay in line with its Western allies even as it tries to keep alive a proposed summit meeting with Putin.
Look at the contortions the NYT is doing!
First of all, the corporate propaganda pre$$ lies about this economy so why would they not be lying about the enemies? The second thing is the laugher ending.
The new sanctions include a tightening of restrictions on exports of Japanese weapons, a largely symbolic move since Japan sells few arms to Russia. Five Russian banks were also barred from selling new securities in Japan, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
PFFFFFFFFT!
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “disappointed” by Japan’s move. “We consider this unfriendly step as new evidence of the Japanese side’s inability to independently build up its foreign policy,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its website. “Our position remains unchanged — unilateral sanctions are illegitimate and never reach their goal.”
Under control of the U.S. is what they are.
It was the third round of sanctions that Japan has imposed on Russia this year, following a move in August to freeze financial assets held in Japan by 40 Russian individuals and groups who Japan says support the separatists. The first round of sanctions, in March, included a ban on visits to Japan by two dozen Russians also linked to the unrest.
Japan has been widely seen as moving more slowly and imposing more modest sanctions on Russia than the United States and other G-7 nations for fear of endangering talks that it is seeking with Russia on issues like energy cooperation and a long-festering dispute over control of islands between Russia and the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan spoke by telephone with Putin, according to Japanese news reports. During the call, Abe proposed holding a summit meeting in November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing, the reports said.
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Related: "It pays to be Putin’s friend" by Steven Lee Myers, Jo Becker and Jim Yardley | New York Times
Yeah, HIS loyalists are billionaires with influence -- as opposed to AmeriKa's leader.
I'm sick of "annexing" NYT propaganda, sorry.
"Russia cancels exchange program after a student seeks US asylum" by Neil MacFarquhar | New York Times October 05, 2014
MOSCOW — US officials suggested that the Kremlin was using the case as a pretext to further impair diplomatic relations....
Pot, kettle.
As details surrounding the case emerged all week, it generated indignation in Russia, feeding the government line developed by President Vladimir V. Putin that the country remains the last pillar of moral values in the face of the increasingly decadent West....
According to reports in the Russian media, the boy, 16, was living with an American family in Michigan when he met a gay couple at church.
An article by the state-run news agency TASS quoted unidentified Russian diplomats in Washington as saying that the couple persuaded the boy that he should stay in the United States by promising to support him, including paying his tuition at Harvard University.
The article said that the boy had decided to seek asylum on the grounds of his sexual orientation, and that the gay couple had guaranteed to a court that they would support him financially. The article suggested that the court made the couple his guardians, but left unclear with whom he was living.
The Russian diplomats said that they sought help from the police, but that the police declined to investigate.
The TASS article depicted the outcome as the work of a gay cabal, saying that when the bereft mother flew to the United States to plead with her son to return home, she was forced to hold the meeting in the presence of his two lawyers, who were “also of nontraditional sexual orientation.”
Susan Reed, the supervising lawyer with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, who is representing the boy, declined to provide many details about the case. But she said that “things we have seen reported in the Russian press are completely inaccurate or serious distortions of the facts.”
Aaaaah, you get used to it when you see it on the newsstand every day!
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Yeah, that's them.
Thousands march in Moscow against Ukraine fighting
The war paper flashes peace sign.
Pussy Riot bring message to Harvard
Pussy Riot posts open letter to Harvard president Drew Faust
That propaganda smells like pussy.
"Russian websites published photos from an exhibition in Moscow titled ‘‘The 12 Labors of Vladimir Putin,’’ in which Putin is depicted as Hercules, battling Western nations disguised as serpents and monsters or taming an ox bearing the symbol of Crimea. Putin’s always-high ratings have skyrocketed this year as he responded to a pro-European uprising in Ukraine by seizing Crimea, and reacted defiantly to Western sanctions. However, as the value of the ruble sinks under pressure from sanctions, some online commentators were less enthusiastic."
How can you tell?
Almost forgot:
"Report finds missile strike likely in crash of flight 17" by Andrew Higgins and Nicola Clark | New York Times September 10, 2014
BRUSSELS — Eight weeks after a Malaysia Airlines plane disintegrated over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard and triggering a frenzy of East-West finger-pointing, investigators, in their first account of the calamity on Tuesday, released evidence consistent with an attack by a surface-to-air missile but shed no clear light on who was responsible.
A preliminary report issued in The Hague by the Dutch Safety Board, which is leading an international effort to get to the bottom of the tragedy, gave some indirect support to assertions by the United States and Ukraine that pro-Russia rebels shot down the aircraft with an SA-11, or Buk, surface-to-air missile.
Its findings also debunked several theories circulated by Russian media and on the Internet, including reports that moments before the disaster the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 reported to air traffic controllers that they were being tailed by a Ukrainian military jet.
That's the clue to the cover story aspect of this article right there, that and the way the coverage vanished like a different Malaysian jet.
The release of the preliminary findings should also calm repeated questions by Russian officials and media in recent weeks about why, after an initial blaze of publicity and accusations, the fate of Flight 17 had lost the West’s attention, a shift of interest they have often presented as evidence of some sort of coverup.
Yet so circumspect and noncommittal was the Dutch report that “everyone will find something here to support their case,” Reed Foster, a defense analyst at IHS Jane’s in London, said. “It is a very vanilla account of a very tragic event.”
If they had evidence implicating Russia or the rebels they would have trumpeted it. What are they hiding?
The Dutch report marked the first official accounting of an episode that escalated tensions between Moscow and Washington. Yet the preliminary findings, constrained by investigators’ limited access to the crash site, a wide swath of farmland controlled by pro-Russia rebels near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, and also their wariness of stepping into a political minefield, only highlighted how difficult a definitive reckoning remains.
Translation: cover story and lie not getting any traction cuz it was a false flag.
Bitter arguments about what happened to Flight 17 have both pained the grieving relatives of victims and clouded what is ultimately a criminal case involving the murder of 193 Dutch nationals, 43 Malaysians, 27 Australians, and 35 others from nations as far-flung as Indonesia and Britain.
Intense fighting near the crash site kept investigators away. They pieced together their account from the plane’s recorded flight data and cockpit voice recorders, photographs of the wreckage, air traffic control data, meteorological reports, and other sources of information.
Tjibbe Joustra, chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, said in a telephone interview from The Hague that a final report would be issued sometime in the middle of next year and investigators hoped to clarify “the type of object that penetrated the plane.”
The only "truth" we will get from the media will be a limited hangout before it also falls to the ground.
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Also finding it strange that all of a sudden Flight 370 resurfaces:
"With seabed mapped, hunt for Malaysian plane resumes" by Kristen Gelineau | Associated Press October 05, 2014
SYDNEY — After a four-month hiatus, the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is about to resume in a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean, with searchers lowering new equipment deep beneath the waves in a bid to finally solve one of the world’s most perplexing aviation mysteries.
The GO Phoenix, the first of three ships that will spend up to a year hunting for the wreckage far off Australia’s west coast, is expected to arrive in the search zone Sunday, though weather could delay its progress.
Crews will use sonar, video cameras, and jet fuel sensors to scour the water for any trace of the Boeing 777, which disappeared March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
The search has been on hold for months so crews could map the seabed in the search zone, about 1,100 miles west of Australia. The 23,000-square mile search area lies along what is known as the ‘‘seventh arc,’’ a stretch of ocean where investigators believe the aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed, based largely on an analysis of transmissions between the plane and a satellite.
The GO Phoenix, provided by Malaysia’s government, will begin hunting in an area considered the likeliest crash site. The Equator and Discovery, provided by Dutch contractor Fugro, are expected to join the hunt later this month.
Malaysia and Australia are each contributing around $60 million to fund the search.
The ships will use towfish, underwater vessels equipped with sonar that create images of the ocean floor. The towfish, which transmit data in real time, are dragged slowly through the water by thick cables up to 6 miles long.
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Also see: Search resumes for missing Malaysian airliner
Maybe it was pilot error:
"Safety board finds multiple errors in UPS crash" Associated Press September 10, 2014
WASHINGTON — A fatal UPS cargo plane crash during a landing attempt last year was caused by pilots who made a series of errors and should have aborted the landing, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.
The panel also said the pilots may have been suffering from fatigue, but said more stringent federal rules governing pilot hours would not have prevented the accident. Such tightened rules are being sought by the pilots union and are being resisted by UPS.
The primary causes of the predawn accident on Aug. 14, 2013, were the pilots’ decision to continue a landing attempt at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport in Alabama after they realized the plane was not lined up correctly and their failure to monitor the plane’s altitude, the board said.
The twin-engine Airbus A300 descended too rapidly, clipping the tops of trees and crashing into a hillside....
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NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Russia looks to compensate its sanctioned elite" Associated Press October 09, 2014
MOSCOW — Russia’s Parliament gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would grant compensation to individuals hit by Western sanctions, a move that the usually compliant opposition criticized as a Kremlin attempt to buy the loyalty of the elite.
In AmeriKa, the elite buy the loyalty of leaders and we get fake critici$m.
The bill, which also allows Moscow to seize the assets in Russia of foreign individuals encouraging the sanctions, passed by a small margin, 233 to 202.
Then Obummer can't visit.
The law was first proposed in April, but withdrawn amid a torrent of criticism. The government’s about-face and the bill’s re-introduction in September came just one day after Italian authorities seized approximately $40 million worth of property owned by Russian businessman and longtime Putin ally, Arkady Rotenberg.
Oh, it's another tit-for-tat move by chess master Putin.
As the Ukrainian crisis escalated this year, the Russian elite has rallied around Putin.
As well as the rest of the population judging by the sky-high approval ratings he is getting at home and abroad.
But as the sanctions start to bite, it has become clear that such loyalty will come at a price.
Getting to the point where I want to sit out so many ma$$ media dances these days.
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"At least 300 dead in Ukraine since cease-fire, UN reports" New York Times October 09, 2014
GENEVA — Hundreds of people have died in fighting in eastern Ukraine since a cease-fire was agreed to by the government and armed separatists last month, the United Nations reported Wednesday, saying it had also received reports of mass graves containing hundreds of bodies.
Yes, Russia and the rebels want the West to look into those because, well, you know, the graves were filled by the Ukraine army.
Hello? Hell-ooooo????
At least 331 people were reported killed in the month after the cease-fire was announced on Sept. 5, the UN human rights office in Geneva said, adding that exchanges of artillery, tank, and light arms fire had continued on an almost daily basis in some areas of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Then the cease-fire was nothing more than a peace of toilet paper, huh?
The latest toll brought the number of people reported killed in the past six months to at least 3,660, including combatants and civilians, with more than 8,756 injured, Gianni Magazzeni, a senior UN human rights official, told reporters in Geneva. He released a 37-page report that indicated the numbers were conservative.
Most civilian deaths had been caused by indiscriminate shelling of residential areas by both pro-Russian separatists and by the Ukrainian armed forces, the report said.
Of course, most of the fight is in the far east of the country meaning most of the shelling of civilians is being done by the good guys.
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